Winter TV: ‘Mosaic’ (HBO)

The Steven Soderbergh and Ed Solomon drama that centers on the disappearance of children’s book author/illustrator Olivia Lake (Sharon Stone) and the two men she knew: Joel (Garrett Hedlund) and Eric (Frederick Weller), first premieres on the Mosaic app as a branching narrative drama in November before the six-part and more linear miniseries airs on HBO.

What The Critics Say (Metascore 70)

Mosaic is a practically flawless TV series; it resists the gonzo machismo of a True Detective or the star-vehicle force of a Luther through its stubborn resistance to any norms of identification. It has a story to tell, it doesn’t have a singular hero through which to tell it, and there’s no neat ending to wrap it all up. We should all be so lucky to get more shows like this. — Alex McLevy, The A.V. Club

It’s an attempt to push forward the medium of television, but one that demands more than what most viewers might be willing to give. The HBO series–with one cut-together version of the story–is creepily effective, though. Building in intensity, Mosaic thrives on perversity, with its suspects outdoing one another in nastiness. — Daniel D’Addario, Time

Familiar faces like Beau Bridges, Fringe’s Michael Cerveris, and Loudon Wainwright III pop up, intriguingly. All of them give themselves over to Soderbergh, who stages the action with an efficiency that is itself frequently beautiful to behold–he makes a murky murder mystery ring with dramatic clarity. — Ken Tucker, Yahoo TV